Friday, September 27, 2013

This is all for you Cathey. A very sweet friend of ours, of Daffycat Blog, reminded us of your special day. So in honor of you, I and my son went to visit Smith Family Farm. When Nicholas learned why I was going to make this trip - he thought it was great. He insisted he come along and help me take photos.
Cathey - I love your blog and enjoy seeing all your beautiful stitching. Cathey's blog is HERE. But you can visit Daffycat and leave a comment on her blog for Cathey. So when Cathey is feeling better she can read the comments there.
Enjoy all the pumpkins!

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Hello! I have been having lots of fun stitching on projects for both Christmas and Fall.
Yep I am already in the Spirit of the Holidays. There are so many pretty designs to chose from and create.
Since my last post I FOUND MY BUTTONS:) I had been looking to see what pieces of linen I had and in one of the clear bags with the linens I found my package of "Winter Holiday" buttons, by Just Another Button Company, that I needed to complete my hornbook Christmas ornament. Oh I was so Happy to find them.

Have any of you seen on Plum Street Sampler's blog HERE? They are having a Sunday Mystery Sampler called "Mary's Sampler"starting Sept 29th. If you have haven't, you may want to take a look. I think I am going to participate. I have just seen that there will be a second version offered that includes some specialty stitches. It's free and since I do like Plum Street designs I think this will be a very pretty sampler. Sounds like FUN to me:)
Much to share with you today.

"Winter Holiday" by Dames of the Needle

2012 JCS Christmas magazine

35ct parchment linen

The front of the ornament Hornbook

This is the back side. I added my initials and changed the year to 2013.

Remember Grace (Needles Pins and Dragonflies blog) had sent me instructions for making a pumpkin pincushion? I made my very first 2. I used felt and DMC 919 (3 strands). Thank you so much Grace. I enjoyed learning how to make these. And I made both of these pumpkins today.

Hooked on making needlebooks. Here is another one of my Fall versions. It's an Acorn.

I enjoyed selecting the Fall colors.

I was so surprised when I was contacted by Lelia (Stitches of Life blog). She asked if I would like to stitch "Snappy Sampler" by bent Creek chart next. I said "YES". When I received her envelope I was surprised that I got it so fast. I read her card first and set aside the clear parchment paper with the outline of flowers, admired the darling chart by Bent Creek. Then I looked back at the what I thought was an outline of flowers traced, and thought Hm. Went back and re-read her card and noticed the word - tatting... Then looking again at the parchment paper - I realized it opened....I wish you could of seen my face. My eyes got HUGE and I stood up and shouted "I GOT A PIECE OF TATTING"!

OH MY OH MY OH MY! Isn't it beautiful? I already have plans to wear it as a broach. I have a stick pin that will slip thru the upper loops and not pierce the art needle work. I Love it! Lelia you do Beautiful Tatting and Thank you so much for gifting me a piece and for thinking of me to stitch the chart next.

A few days later after being contacted by Lelia I was contacted by Mary Jane (commenter Calamity Jr - doesn't have a blog yet but I know you know who she is). She was sooo Sweet to ask me if I would like to stitch "Cross Stitcher In Residence" by Lizzie Kate next. I couldn't type "Yes" fast enough:) She also sent me a beautiful skein of Peoria Purple - Weeks Dye Works. The floss is soo pretty and I love it. Thank you so much Mary Jane for thinking of me and for all your kindness.
WOW How lucky I am that I was contacted by both these lovely ladies!!!

I FINISHED!!! ALL DONE!!! "Christmas Eve" by Prairie Schooler. Now I can take my time and hunt for the perfect frame. I WILL get to have this on display for this Christmas. Notice I did frog the top border and re-stitched it correctly. It went fast and I am so pleased. Makes it look like Santa and the reindeer are above the village.

All the white surrounding the wording on the bottom felt like it took forever. But I kept stitching it while watching some Christmas movies. I think I watched "Christmas with the Krank's" like 3 times.

Progress on Fairy Hill by Bothy Threads Cut Thru SAL. It may not look like I did much but I did. Lots of the sand on the bottom and the white and blue strips above. Thank Goodness I didn't miss a row. I thought I had but I rechecked and I am fine:)

This is another one of my moms David Winter Cottages. It says on the bottom, Special for Christmas 1987, Ebenezer Scrooge's Counting House.

I feel like one of Santa's Elf's as I have been working on some Christmas Gifts.

Can you spy what I have been making?

I also am going to be participating in Vickie's (A Stitcher's Story Blog) SAL - Autumn Delights by Barbara Ana. If you like to participate, plenty of time to join us. After going to Barnes and Noble they did not have the correct issue of Cross-Stitch & Needlework magazine. I found one on Etsy, bought it and it has arrived. Now I get to kit it up for October 1st, the first day of Vickie's SAL. It will be lots of fun and great to stitch it with some other stitcher's. So far there are 3 of us in the SAL.

We had some rain Saturday - love it. Today was a beautiful and sunny day perfect weather 75.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Happy September to you. One of my FAVORITE commercials is from Target where the dad takes the kids shopping for back to school supplies and hes kicking up his heals in the aisles, smiling and the kids are pouting. LOVE IT! Never gets old. Great to be able to load my photos for the post. Took me long enough today due to ??? I could get to: chose files, then highlight the photos, then the next step wouldn't work. that's where the photo would show on the post where we are writing. I was lucky and found that loading one at a time was slow but worked (and some very clever double clicking and if the photo didn't load I would click on Chose file again and reload). Oh the joys of computers - lol.
Lots of stitching going on here and so sorry but I didn't work on Ann Dale this time. But she's calling to me and she's right next to my chair waiting. Still lots for you to view...

The house is of my moms collection, David Winter - Stratford House, 1981. She loved these miniature houses and cottages. Always reminded her of Fantasy Land in Disneyland and her tiny Tinkerbell's are displayed around them. So to me these houses are all part of moms Tinkerbell collection. So charming - Don't you think so?

This cutie needlebook I had to make after seeing it on Elaine's blog HERE. I was enchanted by the look of a mini book. Emily gave the tutorial link to NanaCompany and you can see it HERE but I made my needlebook themed for Fall. It's a felt pumpkin I cut out for the cover, although it looks like a tomato -lol.

The back of the book is quilted with tiny squares. It was a great idea to use up scraps of left over fabrics. For me? ha I pulled my fabrics out and cut away.

The inside.I completed this yesterday and today I made another one but a bit different.

Mail brought me a surprise from Grace of Needles Pins and Dragonflies. I had seen a pumpkin pincushion that I fell in love with and wanted to learn how to make one. Grace was soo kind that she mailed me the instructions and included a Sweetheart Tree kit with beads as another surprise.
Thank you very much Grace for all your kindness and thoughtfulness. You know what I will be making this week:)

"Christmas Eve" - Prairie Schooler

Remember my last post I couldn't find a packet of buttons to finish my Christmas ornament?
OH YES - Still no where to be found. One day the packet will make an appearance. In the mean time... I wanted to stitch a Christmas ornament but I had this chart that I had bought last year and pulled it out and decided this was my next Christmas project. Already if you can see - the top border I stitched is too high. Noticed it after I stitched the top of Santa's head. I have studied it to see were I went wrong - no luck yet. But I did have a horrible headache when I was re-checking. Not wise.
Of course I didn't have the recommended fabric.

I found in my stash a piece of Lugana (22 or 25ct I think). It originally was ivory or cream, I re-dyed it to the tan/pinkish color on the Left TO the color on the right and started stitching last week. I love the Rit Dye Color Formula Guide HERE. I did test a small swatch of the fabric first before dipping in my whole large piece to make sure I had a good color of what I wanted.

Hobby Lobby opened in our town :))))) And I had seen on Myra's - Gr8dame's Place blog, the beautiful red print Christmas fabric. A few days later our Hobby Lobby opened. My sister and I went and I happened to have found the fabric Myra had:) Oh I am soo Happy. I also picked up the holly berry fabric on the left to go with the red. And I was so surprised to have found 32ct Wichelt linen. Here in my town there is only Aida fabric to be found (even then its a hunt), Joann's has 2 - 32ct linens that's it! So I grabbed it and I had a coupon:)

Now for my next big find at Hobby Lobby, I found the boxes that are shown in BBD - A Stitcher's Journal. One of the projects shown this box and I couldn't find one. Now I have 2 boxes - thanks to Hobby Lobby. I must say though I still love Joann's and Micheal's. It seems each store carries different vendors and items. And I still order on line for stitching supplies.
Hope your all enjoying September so far. Here our weather was getting cooler but now its been hot again. This Friday and Saturday it's to be in the 100's. But I will be cool (sitting in the air conditioning) and stitching.
With my Love and Appreciation - Annette